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Palgrave Macmillan

The Relational Fabric of Community

  • Book
  • © 2018

Overview

Authors:
  1. Kenneth C. Bessant

    1. Brandon University, Brandon, MB, Canada

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  • Explores the relational underpinnings of community theory

  • Proposes that community is fundamentally relational in its continuous emergence, dynamism, and transformation

  • Examines the value in exploring different interpretations of this essential aspect of human social existence

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
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  2. Introduction: The Enigma of Community

    • Kenneth C. Bessant
    Pages 1-35

  3. Entering into Relation: Being as Social Being

    • Kenneth C. Bessant
    Pages 37-63

  4. Evolving Conceptions of Community

    • Kenneth C. Bessant
    Pages 65-97

  5. The Field-Interactional Approach to Community

    • Kenneth C. Bessant
    Pages 99-126

  6. Dialogical Conceptions of the Self and Community

    • Kenneth C. Bessant
    Pages 127-153

  7. The Socio-symbolic Construction and Social Representation of Community

    • Kenneth C. Bessant
    Pages 155-183

  8. Relational Sociology and Emergent Community

    • Kenneth C. Bessant
    Pages 185-209

  9. Intersubjectivity, Community, and Agency

    • Kenneth C. Bessant
    Pages 211-236

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 237-249
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Keywords

About this book

Theoretical and philosophical work on community has yielded multifold definitions and analytical frameworks. Kenneth C. Bessant reflects on the inherent complexity and diversity of this deeply intersubjective aspect of lived social experience. He explores the relational underpinnings of early and more contemporary approaches to the study of community, with a particular emphasis on their core assumptions, concepts, and tenets. Each of these perspectives offers a relatively distinct interpretation of community, while also revealing the intrinsically relational fabric of its perpetual emergence, dynamism, and transformation. The ‘being-with’ of relational social existence is the fundamental basis upon which all conceptions of community are built, and this is the epicenter around which the book revolves. Community is born of, exists within, and brings forth social relations. It is a living expression of relational willing, thinking, and acting.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Brandon University, Brandon, MB, Canada

    Kenneth C. Bessant

About the author

Kenneth C. Bessant is Professor of Rural Development at Brandon University, Canada. His academic publications span a number of research areas: multidimensional scale analysis, typological method, sustainable livelihoods, and community development. 

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